


The One Where Everyone is a Parent

by kierigakure



Series: That Series Where Everyone is a Parent [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 04:34:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20924246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kierigakure/pseuds/kierigakure
Summary: Meet Shizune.Shizune runs a daycare.For some reason, Shizune takes a particular interest in the new roster of children she finds herself caring for. She decides to hold weekly group meetings so she can get to know their parents (and their parents can get to know each other) better.Meet the parents.





	The One Where Everyone is a Parent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Shizune.  
Shizune runs a daycare.  
For some reason, Shizune takes a particular interest in the new roster of children she finds herself caring for. She decides to hold weekly group meetings so she can get to know their parents (and their parents can get to know each other) better.  
Meet the parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things:  
1\. Not all of the chapters of this fic/parts of this series are going to take place in the daycare. I just didn't know how else to introduce the parents so that they were all in the same setting.  
2\. The children are not all the same age! Below are roughly how old each child is at the beginning of this fic:  
Haku - 4 years old  
Sai - 17 months old  
Sakura - 12 months old  
Sasuke - 9 months old  
Naruto - 6 months old  
Suigetsu - 6 months old  
Lmk what you think! Love always,  
Kie ♡!

Thursdays were important to Shizune.

Running a daycare was a full-time job and the brunette often felt like she easily exceeded forty hours halfway through the workweek. Between drying tears and snot-filled noses, burping infants, serving apple-juice to toddlers, teaching four-year-olds to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and communicating with hysterical parents…

Tack on administrative tasks such as overseeing finances or screening, hiring, and training workers and it quickly became apparent that she had a lot on her plate. But being the over-achiever she was, Shizune didn’t let her duties stop there. Instead, she decided to extend her services even further.

Having earned her master’s in childhood development and an extensive background in general psychology, the brunette saw it fit to organize weekly group meetings for the new parents and guardians of her daycare attendees. That way, each could take turns discussing the trials and tribulations that came with adjusting to family life. And network, of course.

So, again, Thursdays were important to Shizune because the group met weekly on that day.

Five sessions in and things were going swimmingly. A lot of the parents were now on a first-name basis. Instead of awkwardly skirting around each other to pick up their child each day, she often observed as the adults interacted whilst bundling their kids up to face the elements. With that in mind, she felt eager to see how today’s meeting would go.

She looked down at her watch. 3:56 PM.

This is around the time when parents began shuffling in to claim their children. She decided she would start at around 4:15, 4:30 being the latest so she could give any stragglers as much time as possible to find their way to the playroom before then. For right now, though, she busied herself with tidying up the room as she waited for the adults to arrive.

Not five minutes later, Umino Iruka walked in. This didn’t surprise Shizune seeing as he was always one of, if not _the_ first to arrive for pick-up.

“Good evening, Shizune!” The brunet greeted warmly. His eyes only met hers for a moment before he began to search the room – like he always did – for a certain blond-haired little boy.

“Hey, Iruka! How was school today? Did any of my kids give you any grief?” She teased. It was something of a running joke between them. Most of the children that outgrew her services enrolled at the school where Iruka taught the incoming first-grade class. Her former students usually ended up on his roster more often than not.

“No more than usual. Where is he?” He asked, and Shizune couldn’t help but chuckle. Polite as ever, yet still eager to see his child.

“The nursery. He woke up from his nap not too long ago, but someone should be bringing him over as we speak.”

As if on cue, a woman with short red hair and a pearl necklace stepped into the room. Balanced on one hip was the infant in question, dressed in a bright orange and white romper. Despite the bags under her eyes and the fact that she looked dead on her feet, she continued to snort like a pig. This, in turn, caused the child to squeal in delight. Iruka noticed the dried streaks of tears on his child’s cheeks and immediately put two and two together.

“Oh, Naru-chan!” He lightly scolded, “Have you been giving Tonton trouble again?”

“Nothing I can’t handle.” She insisted with a smile.

Naruto’s head turned to meet the sound of his father’s voice, already reaching out with grabby hands in the other male’s direction. Tonton held the baby out for Iruka to take and the brunet quickly accepted, transferring his son onto his own hip. Immediately, he began to pepper kisses on the baby’s slightly damp face. When he felt chubby hands begin to grab at the scar that stretched across the bridge of his nose, he tilted his head up to place a kiss on the palm of it, too.

“Thank you, Tonton!” He called out to her before he forgot, his voice muffled by Naruto’s little hand. Tonton waved to them both over her shoulder as she made her way back to the nursery to retrieve another child.

“We’ll be starting at around 4:30. You guys can go sit and catch up in the meantime.” Shizune said. She pat Naruto’s back once Iruka walked past.

“Sui is sleeping, Papa.”

Shizune turned her head to see two figures pass by the open door. A small child with long, brown hair led a tall man – easily over six feet – with a black face mask down the hallway in the direction of the nursery by his hand. The fact that the male had to bend so the boy could pull him around with ease amused her.

“Good evening, Zabuza! Good evening, Haku!”

“Good evening, Shizune-sensei.” Haku stopped momentarily to regard his teacher without ever letting go of his father’s hand. Zabuza’s gaze shifted from his child to Shizune’s general direction.

“Hello.”

“Shizune-sensei, can I show Papa the pictures I drew for him?”

Haku was, without a doubt, one of _the_ politest four-year-old’s Shizune has cared for since opening the daycare. She knew for a fact that she would never have to worry about the brunet raising hell in Iruka’s classroom once it came time for him to pass on. At the child’s inquiry, she shrugged her shoulders and nodded.

“I don’t see why not. The meeting starts at 4:30, Zabuza, okay?”

Zabuza grunted his acknowledgment as Haku pulled him into the room designated for the ‘big kids’ – the ones that are too old to be considered toddlers but too young to be enrolled in elementary school. Even though the older man walked stiffly and gave off the impression that he would rather be anyplace else, she knew that he would do anything for his sons. Even kill for them if it came down to it.

Knowing how antsy it made his husband be away from the children longer than necessary, Kisame sent Zabuza ahead to spend time with them before the meeting began. Since Itachi stopped by on his day off (he finished his college exam early), three people weren’t needed to close the Hoshigaki-Momochi Swordsman Shop anyway. Not half an hour after Zabuza left, the pair followed suit. Taking inventory and counting the register didn’t take half as long as Kisame expected with Itachi’s aid.

It is now 4:10. Itachi and Kisame signed in at the front desk together. They nearly stood shoulder-to-shoulder as they walked down the hall, making sure to stop by the playroom and greet Shizune along the way. They separated upon reaching two doors diagonal from each other, one leading to the nursery and the other leading to the ‘big kids’ room’. Kisame knew that Haku probably dragged his husband in there the minute the man set foot inside of the establishment. While he stepped inside that room, Itachi walked into the nursery.

The Uchiha disappeared inside the room and a moment later, a tall woman with blonde hair tied back in low pigtails stepped out. She still had her scrubs and lab coat on, her ID badge clipped to the tiny pocket right above her left breastplate. In her arms was a small child with bubblegum pink hair that framed her face and chubby fingers shoved in her mouth.

“Good evening, Lady Tsunade!” Shizune called to the medical professional as she made her way towards the playroom. No matter how many times she saw the taller woman interact with her daughter, Shizune swore she would never get used to seeing her great-aunt act so… maternal.

“Can you say ‘Konbanwa’ to Shizune?” Tsunade asked the baby once she reached the entrance of the playroom and came face-to-face with her niece. Sakura’s tiny head tilted to one side as she tried to decipher what her adoptive mother was asking her to do.

“Ko-ban-wa?” Tsunade repeated herself at half-speed. Wide, emerald-green eyes watched the woman’s lips as they worked to form each syllable. The pinkette’s mother reached up to pull her hand out of her mouth.

“Come on, Sakura! Show Shizune how smart you are!”

“Mama?”

Both women chuckled at the little girl’s response. Tsunade cupped the back of her daughter’s head before she leant down to press a quick kiss to her forehead. She then shrugged her shoulders and looked back up at Shizune.

“We’ll keep working on it, I guess. See you once the meeting starts.”

“Twenty more minutes and we should be ready. And, oh – just in case you’re thinking of conveniently ‘forgetting’ to invite everyone tonight, I’ll be happy to tell everyone that–”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.” Sakura began to fuss in Tsunade’s arms, so the blond woman set the child on her feet. Bending over, she took both of the pinkette’s hands in her own and helped the little girl walk on unsteady legs towards the colorful rug. “You run an entire daycare and yet you still can’t stop yourself from being a royal pain in my–”

“Language!”

Iruka scolded the older woman from his spot on the playmat. Naruto sat between Iruka’s spread legs, one of his father’s hands cradling his head and the other trained at the small of his back. Naruto’s pediatrician insisted that Iruka should be encouraging the boy to sit up by himself for a few seconds at a time so he can strengthen his neck and back.

“Yeah, yeah. Good evening, Iruka! Hello, Naru-chan!” Tsunade cooed at the adorable father-son duo as she slowly made her way over with Sakura. The little pink-haired girl’s emerald eyes lit up once they landed on Naruto. She pulled one of her hands out of her mother’s grip long enough to point at the baby, trying her best to pick up her pace so she could reach the pair quicker. It was almost as if she felt eager to socialize with the younger child.

“Haku wanted ice cream.” Zabuza spoke next, a very alert and squirming Suigetsu in his arms as Kisame ushered him into the playroom. The absence of their other little boy meant Tonton and the other workers would be keeping him occupied until the meeting ended.

“We’ll get some for dessert. If you take him now, you’ll miss the meeting _and_ Suigetsu won’t get to try any.”

“Can he have ice cream?”

“Uh… Okay, good point. Can he?”

Zabuza looked to Tsunade, a renown medical professional who had to know _something_ about pediatric nutrition, the same time Kisame looked to Shizune, who specialized in caring for young children. Both women looked at each other, then shrugged.

“A little taste wouldn’t hurt.” Shizune replied, to which the blonde-haired woman agreed. Seemingly satisfied with this answer, both husbands nodded their heads and moved to join the other parents waiting.

Yamato and Kakashi were last to arrive, but that wasn’t unusual. The pair worked at the local precinct as detectives. Moreover, they were partners. Seeing one arrive before or after the other rarely ever happened.

The partners both poked their heads into the room to greet Shizune and survey the room. Once Yamato saw that his son wasn’t in the arms of any of the workers scattered about, he started towards the nursery, rightfully assuming his child was still asleep. Kakashi caught sight of his little family settled in their usual spot on the playmat and began to walk over.

Kakashi had no idea when Iruka got so good at sensing his presence. Before he could even say anything to his husband and son, Iruka turned around with Naruto in his lap so the small boy could watch his other father walk over.

“Look who’s here! Is it daddy?”

The gray-haired man felt relieved that he wore a black mask to obscure the lower half of his face. The smile that graced his features as he watched Naruto’s eyes light up? The way the infant nearly launched himself out of Iruka’s lap to get to his other father whilst making grabby hands all the way?

_Tooth-rotting_.

Kakashi greeted the other three adults in the room before sitting cross-legged next to his partner. He then pulled Naruto into his arms and pressed a kiss to the crown of the infant’s head. The minute he pulled away, Naruto reached out and grabbed the edge of his black mask and tugged surprisingly hard. Kakashi reached up to pull the baby’s hand away before he spoke.

“Maa, Naru-chan. Thank you for reminding me.”

The gray-haired man leant in so Iruka’s head blocked his face from the view of the other adults. He then yanked the cloth material down and pressed a kiss to his husband’s cheek. Before he sat back, he replaced it over the lower half of his face. This happened so quick, Tsunade and Kisame (who were actually _really_ eager to see how the man looked under the mask) didn’t have time to process what happened.

Zabuza couldn’t care less, seeing as both he and Hatake were in the same boat. _Especially_ when it came to their children trying their best to rip the damn thing off their faces.

Meanwhile, in the nursery…

The elder Uchiha at some point pulled Sasuke out of the crib. Before the nine-month-old’s fussing from being disturbed could turn into full-on wails, Itachi sank into one of the rocking chairs in the corner of the room. As he expected, the baby soon settled in his arms again, but he couldn’t stop himself from falling asleep at the repetitive motion as well.

Sometime later, Yamato walked in. When he noticed Itachi and Sasuke cuddled up to each other and sleeping soundly he tried his best to tread lightly lest he wake them.

Almost all the cots at this point were empty, save for one; the parents that opted to simply pick their children up and leave were long gone. Yamato sometimes wished he were one of them, but Kakashi insisted it would be good to meet other parents like him. He walked around the room slowly, peering into crib after crib, before he noticed one contained a toddler with straight black hair, sprawled out on his back and fast asleep. The child had one arm thrown over his little tummy, and the other clutched an old, tattered blanket to his side.

It was the same blanket Yamato and Kakashi found him with not too long ago.

Yamato watched as the boy slept soundly for a few moments, hesitant to wake him. When he noticed that he only had a few more minutes before the meeting started, he thought he should probably stop dragging his feet. Leaning over the edge of the cot, he reached down to run his fingers through the baby’s soft hair.

“Hey, buddy.” Yamato spoke softly so he wouldn’t scare the boy.

Sai was a light sleeper; putting him sleep was always a challenge and most days, just the sound of Yamato’s footsteps would cause him to stir. The fact that Yamato got close enough to touch him without Sai waking up meant the little boy was probably very tired. Still, the toddler’s eyes shot open and he met his father’s gaze halfway.

“G’morning.” Tenzō tried to communicate with the boy again. Being one of the oldest in the group next to Sakura meant that the little boy learned how to walk just a few months ago and knew quite a few words as well. Still, he preferred to be held and felt even more hesitant to speak. Yamato watched as the little boy sat up, then grabbed the metal bars of the cot to pull himself to his feet.

“How did you sleep?”

Sai remained silent as he held his father’s gaze, expression neutral except for the small pout that tugged at either corner of his mouth. He held both of his arms up high, blanket still in the tight grip of his right hand, and the detective reached down to pull the toddler into his arms with a grunt.

“Why don’t we try walking for a little bit just to stretch your legs?”

“No.”

If there was one word that Sai wasn’t hesitant to use, it was _definitely_ that. Though he heaved a sigh, Yamato made no move to set the toddler on his feet. Instead, he ambled towards the rocking chair where the Uchiha sat with his little brother pressed to his chest. Both slept soundly even when father and son made their way over. The detective couldn’t even begin to imagine how exhausted the young man must feel. College courses and working full-time are hard to adjust to alone. But add on having to take care of an infant? Yamato didn’t know how he did it and he can’t say he’s eager to find out.

“Itachi.”

The sound of his name was enough to make the man in question stir, his hand still cradling his younger brother’s head to the crook of his neck protectively. He blinked up blearily at the duo that stared down at him.

“Yamato. Good evening.”

“Good evening to you too.” Tenzō’s head jerked towards the exit. “We have five minutes ‘til the meeting starts. Just wanted to let you know that we should probably start heading over.”

“Hn.”

***

Shizune pulled up the sleeve of her cardigan enough to look down at the watch on her wrist.

It was now 4:30 on the dot.

Itachi and Yamato walked in just few moments earlier and silently took their respective seats. A quick survey of the room and she noticed that she had full attendance. Satisfied with the turnout (and secretly tired of waiting), she closed the door to the playroom behind her and made her way over to the colorful rug.

She found it kind of amusing how the adults arranged themselves in a semi-circle, leaving her, as the teacher, with just enough room by the front of the carpet to lead the discussion. It almost resembled a game of show-and-tell she tried her best to play with the bigger kids at least once per semester.

Situated at the far left was Yamato, with Sai sitting cross-legged on the mat before him. Again, being one of the oldest children in the group meant the toddler had no problem holding himself up to play with the toys scattered around him. Next to Yamato were Kakashi and his husband Iruka. In-between the two was Naruto, propped up into a sitting position by both parties whilst the baby sucked on his chubby fist noisily. Tsunade was to Iruka’s left, though keeping Sakura in one spot proved to be a difficult task. Finally, she let the little girl go so she could crawl over and begin playing with the toys parallel to Sai. Itachi and Tsunade’s knees nearly touched as they sat adjacent to one another with Sasuke still sound asleep in his older brother’s arms. Then came Kisame, who busied himself with digging through a diaper bag for the (now lukewarm) bottle he packed for a fussy Suigetsu. The formation ended with Zabuza on the far right who held the infant in question, looking significantly less-than-pleased at the entire ordeal.

“Okay guys!” She began, clapping her hands together excitedly as she did so. “Let’s get started, shall we?”


End file.
